May 2012 - Gryphon Minerals

Gryphon Minerals Limited (GRY) – Finalising Completion of a DFS by end SQ2012, to Commence Production at >200,000ozpa from 2014

Gryphon completed the PFS on their flagship Banfora Project in Burkina Faso in August 2011 based on 2moz of inferred resources, envisaging initial production from 2014 of >180,000ozpa through a 2.5mtpa plant at cash costs of <US$430/oz (for the first two years). The DFS (when completed by end SQ2012), expects to treat 3.5mtpa for >200,000ozpa, based on an upgraded resource in JQ2012.

While the upgraded JQ2012 resource is expected (by ERA) to be between 2.5moz and 3moz, ~ 50% of the resource appears likely to be from Nogbele, which appears to be the "jewel in the crown". Nogbele appears to consist of a complex of veins/lodes with different orientations and varying grades from ~1g/t through to ~70g/t, of which many intersections are >3g/t, (as in the recent 41m @ 5g/t) and hence its resource grade may increase as the higher grade areas are expected to be domain-modelled separately instead of the current alteration-based modelling.

Although the majority of the higher grade intersections appear to be at Nogbele (as illustrated by the 16m @ 8.6g/t & 2m @ 94g/t intersections reported in March 2012), Samavogo and Stinger also have a number of high grade intersections. The degree of mineralisation infers (ERA view) that Samavogo may increase its previous initial inferred ~0.5moz resource by ~50%, while Stinger's initial resource may be ~300,000oz or so, depending on the intersections from deeper drillholes.

A complete review of the drill core, with geochem and aeromag has now been completed on GRY's Tijirit gold project in Mauritania with an initial 30,000m 10-hole drilling campaign underway on selected targets with results expected in JQ2012. Drilling was also expected to occur on the Akjoujt copper-gold project in JQ2012, along with initial field programs (based on geological studies) in the Cote d'Ivoire areas.